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This is the difference between hyperacusis and misophonia

Hyperacusis and misophonia are often confused. They both fall under the umbrella of ‘decreased sound tolerance’. Even for doctors, it can be hard to tell them apart. But it’s essential to know the difference between hyperacusis and misophonia to find way the best way to cope.

Rage vs. Pain

Do you hate the sound of people chewing, pens clicking, plates clattering and paper crinkling? All of them? Diagnosis: hyperacusis. Yep, really. Let’s start with explaining misphonia and hyperacusis, that will hopefully clear up a lot for you!

The big difference between the two, is the way you react to noise. With misophonia, noise triggers rage. When you suddenly hear a sound, no matter how loud, it induces rage. Even sounds that aren’t loud can cause misophonia. And o yes, misophonia is most of the time inherited.

With hyperacusis, however, noise leads to pain. Hyperacusis usually starts because of overexposure to noise. After this first overexposure, ‘ordinary’ sounds can suddenly feel painful. It can happen that hyperacusis comes with tinnitus (ringing in the ears), however, this isn’t always the case. Still, constant pain in the ear canal is one of the symptoms of hyperacusis.

Triggers, triggers and more triggers

There is an other big difference between misphonia and hyperacusis, and that is the way that someone reacts to triggers. With hyperacusis, a (late) reaction on a trigger can linger for days or even weeks/months. This reaction is physical pain and therefore can be very distracting and overwhelming. With misophonia, however, the symptoms are felt through the whole body. Anger and/or panic manifest and are expressed through a quickened hartbeat, sweaty palms, emotions, and often a feeling of tightness in the chest. These reactions, however, often dissapear as fast as they came.

Take an ambulance passing by with sirens blazing. For someone with hyperacusis, this can lead to months of pain and sensitivity. A person with misophonia will react very differently. If this is a trigger, someone will react with anger and/or panic. However, loud noises don’t always have to be a trigger and may not even trigger that person’ misophonia…

Phonophobia stands for the fear of sudden loud sounds. To normal people, sudden loud noises cause just a slight, temporarily panic. Like when the alarm of your clock suddenly goes off or when someone is honking their car. Others just can’t overcome that sudden noise. They just can’t act properly to the situation. As a reaction to that, they constantly anticipate to the noise that might be coming. Is there a phonophobia treatment?[vc_single_image media="62393" media_width_percent="100"] Relief the fear It can be quite hard to live with this phobia, but the goods news is that there are treatments to relieve the